A River That Cannot Be Passed — Carter Conlon

I want to speak to you this morning about a river that cannot be passed over, a river that cannot be passed over. Father, I thank you this morning with all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

I thank you for the strength and power that comes from God alone. I thank you, Lord, the time and again you have overridden our frailty, this pulpit. You have placed your Holy Spirit upon us and you've chosen to use us as vessels.

You've spoken through us, your word, your hope, your life, your testament. Lord, things and details about what you're thinking and who you are, I pray God give us the ability to unlock your word in an unprecedented way, to make even the simplest truths very plain, very clear so that all can understand.

Be our strength, O God. Father, we thank you that you will take us into the future with strength and with power. For this is your kingdom, it is your church, this is your testimony. We're all just vessels that you choose by your mercy to use.

Help us to walk humbly before you. No matter what you do or how you glorify your name, help us, O God, never to touch the glory. Keep us from these things, Lord. Help us to be servants as a church to all the body of Christ in New York City and to every person who comes in these doors.

Our only boast is in you, Jesus. Our only claim to anything is in the cross of Christ. We have no other boast, no other claim, no other life. There's nothing else, O God, we can speak about but who you are and what you have done for us.

Help me today, O God, to be able to speak this in a manner that all can understand. O Jesus, we love you. Thank you for your presence and your precious name. John chapter 5, a river that cannot be passed over.

Jesus Heals the Powerless at Bethesda

Verse 1, after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, that means the house of mercy, having five porches.

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, that means powerless people, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water.

Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he said unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

The impotent, or that means the powerless man, answered him, Sir, I have no man. When the water is troubled to put me into the pool, but while I am coming another steps down before me. And Jesus said to him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked. Now in this text of scripture, Bethesda was a pool, it was a place of mercy. It speaks to me about the state of the Christian church many times that we find ourselves in throughout history.

And perhaps we are living in a moment very much that is a mirror image of this particular passage of scripture. It's known among the people as a place of mercy. And perhaps from times and seasons there are great stirrings within this pool.

And there are testimonies of people who have been miraculously touched, strengthened, empowered and healed. But yet the majority of the people are outside waiting for the stirring in the water one more time.

And we live in such a generation when so many of the people, there are churches on almost every corner in some parts of this country. And people know that historically these churches have been places of power and healing and victory.

And so many people now are laying as it is outside in powerlessness waiting one more time for the stirring of the water. Now from time to time we are stirred. It says in verse 4, for an angel went down at certain seasons into the pool and troubled the water.

And we have what we call revival services in the Christian church of Jesus Christ where evangelists come in, for example, those with prophetic giftings and stir the water one more time. And there's great excitement.

And there are a few who are able to get into the water when it's stirred and the testimonies are astounding. We experience this here quite frequently where lives are radically transformed. But however, even though a few are touched, most often the power of God seems confined to within the walls of our meeting places.

No matter what is going on around the world today or around the country, there are churches that can legitimately lay claim to the stirring of the water one more time. The pool seems to clear. The healing seems to flow.

But it largely is confined. And the pool was confined, if you can see the picture. It's one specific spot. It's a location. And all around it and on five different levels as it is, there are people who are simply waiting, longing.

If you can hear it today, the voices of the people of God, the voices of the people as it is in New York City, they're crying out. Now we may not hear it, but God hears it. People are saying, Lord, would you help me?

Would you help my family? Oh God, would you show me where you are? Would you give me victory in my situation? Would you deliver me from this addiction? Would you set my mind free from this torment? Withering people, powerless people, spiritually blind, waiting, having the knowledge in some cases that throughout history there have been great moves of God.

There have been times when the presence of God seems to literally fill the streets, but it seems to be all relegated to history. Many people out there know the situation. They know the testimonies. They know what God has done in days gone by.

But we're in a situation today just very much like Elijah was when he took the mantle of Elijah and hit the water and said, where is the God of Elijah? Where is this? Where are these stirrings of the Holy Spirit?

Where are these moments that we read about in Wales, 1904, Azusa Street, 1906? Times and seasons in the world where God has literally invaded a society, invaded cities. Now we seem to be relegated as it is to pools that are confined within their borders that the people have to somehow try to get to, but they can't get to them.

Think of the testimony of one fine man of God in this church who was so addicted to crack cocaine, he would sit in his apartment and he would rock back and forth, wanting desperately to come to church, having heard a testimony that there was healing there, but had no power to get out of his chair, couldn't leave, could not form the ability to get up, and had not somebody come to help him, would not have the testimony of the freedom that God has given him today.

He said, though I hear and see what is happening, I have no one to help me. Jesus stepped out of the water as it is, and he came to the man, and the man said, I have nobody to help me. How tragic it will be for you and I to get to the throne, and if we are allowed to be witnesses of many who stand from our cities before the throne of God, and I'm not speaking just about New York, other cities throughout this country and throughout the world, and you and I get to stand at the throne, and we see people come and plead as it is with God, Lord, I would have come, but nobody came to help me.

I heard that there were stirrings, I heard that there were seasons of healing, but nobody came, and I had no strength to get there on my own. And if I did even get close, I didn't know if I would be received, I didn't know what people would think about me and my condition, and so I stayed there 38 years waiting for the moving of the water.

Verse 6, it says, when Jesus saw him lie and knew he'd been a long time that way, he said to him, will you be made whole? Suddenly, the one who sent the messenger, these messengers that would stir the pool, the one who sent these messengers, the one who stirred the water, the one who healed the afflicted, he stepped out of all that confines his love and power and stood with those who needed him.

Thank God that Jesus didn't wait for us to get to heaven to touch us. Thank God that the Bible says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Thank God he came to us. Thank God he wooed you by the Holy Spirit. You didn't find Christ, he was never lost, he found you, he came to you. He came to you, he came to me when we were blind, when we were withering, when we had no power, he came to us, spoke to our hearts, drew us to himself, washed away our sins, gave us the empowerment of the Holy Ghost, took away our blinded eyes and gave us the power to stand in our generation.

Hallelujah to the Lamb of God, the mercy of God, the glory of God. He came to us, he came to us and quite often he used people, people who had the courage to step out of the pool, people who had the courage to not let the glory of God just rest inside of the four walls, but they had the courage to believe God, they had the courage to say Lord I'm not going to walk by what my eyes see and what my ears hear in the natural but oh God I'm going to allow you to use me for your glory.

I'm going to go to those who need lead me, guide me, I'm going to go. John 19 .34 tells us that one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out blood and water, there came out the atonement, the blood speaks of the atonement and the water speaks of the empowerment and the healing of the Holy Spirit, the blood and the atonement.

The Blood and Water Flowing from Christ

I believe with all my heart that that's what Ezekiel saw, if you'll go to Ezekiel chapter 47 with me please. He saw something coming out of the temple. Jesus in the last day, the great day of the feast, the scripture says he stood and cried, he said if any man thirsts let him come to me and drink, he that believes on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

They pierced his side, out came the atonement, the blood and the water, the empowerment that you and I need and folks they were celebrating the feast of tabernacles. That was the feast of dwelling in the wilderness.

All those years when God provided, the scripture says their shoes didn't wear out, their clothes never got old, their pantry was never empty and they were celebrating this and they celebrated it of course on a frequent basis.

But on the last day of that feast Jesus stood and said if it's not enough for you just to be celebrating provision, if it's not enough just to be celebrating the fact that you have clothes and you have a house and you are kept in your wilderness, if it's not enough for you just to live in the wilderness with the testimony that I have been provided for, I've been delivered out of it, if it's not enough come to me and drink.

If there's something more of God that you want in your heart and I feel we are in the last day of the feast in the days of this world as we know them and God is crying one more time. If it's not enough just to celebrate the wilderness, emptiness, nothingness that I'm providing for you in your journey, if it's not enough come and drink.

If it's not enough just to celebrate the wilderness, emptiness, nothingness that I'm providing for you in Whoever believes in me and wants to drink you won't be confined to the pool anymore. Your testimony won't just be all about what God is doing in your church as wonderful as that might be, your testimony will be about I've got to tell you what God is doing in me.

Ezekiel 47 beginning at verse 1, afterward Ezekiel says he brought me again to the door of the house and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward for the forefront of the house stood towards the east and the waters came down from under the right side of the house.

Now this is the temple he is speaking about and the south side of the altar. Then he brought me out of the way of the gate northward and led me about by the way without unto the other gate by the way that looks eastward and behold there ran out waters on the right side.

Now I happen to believe that Ezekiel had a part measure vision of the cross of Calvary. Remember when the soldier pierced his side with a spear the blood and water ran out of the side of the son of God.

I believe Ezekiel in measure saw this, he saw the beginning of the church, he saw the testimony of Christ in the earth. It was deeper, it was more profound. He had no other way to describe it but from the frame of reference that he understood.

But God by the Holy Spirit was showing him what the Lord was about to do in the earth. And when the man had the line in his hand verse 3 went forth eastward he measured a thousand cubits, that's a space and a measure of time, and he brought me through the waters and the waters were to the ankles.

Again he measured a thousand and he brought me through the waters and the waters were to the knees. And again he measured a thousand and he brought me through the waters to the loins. Afterwards he measured a thousand and it was a river that I could not pass over.

For the waters were risen, waters to swim in a river that could not be passed over, a river that people had to deal with, a church that society can no longer just pass by as irrelevant and powerless with seasons of stirring.

No, it's never been the intent of God that our whole testimony should be confined to within the borders of our own organization. No matter what the name is on the door, we only meet here to glorify God for who he is and what he has done.

We only meet here to give him thanks for carrying us through the week, for flowing through our lives, for making us a testimony of the reality of who he is in our generation. That's why we meet. This is not what it's all about.

This is where we worship God and give him thanks for who he is and what he is doing in our lives. Ezekiel saw water flowing from the temple. And in the temple, of course, that's where the sacrifice was made.

That's where the atonement was for the people. He saw water. Now, typically there was only blood that flowed from the temple, but he saw water flowing from the temple. Not just the atonement, but the power of God being released through a people.

And as the people began to move out from this place of the atonement, the testimony of God began to spread abroad, first to the ankles, then to the knees, to the loins. And then there was such a testimony of God that people could swim in it.

The Church Must Carry Healing Beyond Its Walls

No longer was the healing of Christ confined to one place, one season, one time, one little stirring with multitudes of people unable to get in because of their own powerlessness. Jesus went to the lame man.

And this is really the key. The waters went to the ankles. He didn't wait for us to come to him. He came to us. And this is really the key to understanding this. We often, as a church age, so many churches create programs, try to conjure up excitement, try to get in proficient speakers, etc., etc., to try to bring the people to the pool.

But the plan of God was never that. The plan of God was that the pool go to the people. We've gotten it a little bit backwards in our generation. We've ended up again in John chapter 5. But Jesus, he was the pool.

He was the healing water. He sent the messengers, but the stirring and the healing was him. And he left the pool. And he went to the lame man. And he said to the lame man, will you be made whole? It speaks to me of when we start to go out into the city.

And we go out into the city in the power of the Spirit. And suddenly people find themselves surrounded by the presence, the love, and the power of God. No longer apart from God, but confronted with a living question that demands an answer.

Will you be made whole? Will you be made whole? You have that authority. You have that power. You're not on the short end of the stick. You don't have to be quiet about Jesus Christ in this generation.

It's so easy to get swallowed when we go out there. I had an opportunity to take a friend and we walked through Times Square last night. And when you look at the flashing lights and the general state of debauchery and everything that's going on, there's a tendency to become like the 10 spies that went into the promised land and said, I believe God, but this is bigger than God.

But it isn't bigger than God. With a snap of his fingers, he could turn the whole thing off and call the people to himself. And you and I have got to be found on the side of faith. We can't be found on the side of fear.

We can't be found with our whole Christianity confined to our church. As wonderful as it is for you and I to meet and worship and experience the presence of God and the presence of God is here. It is undeniable, but that can't be at all.

That can't be everything. We can't go now, Monday to Friday, just waiting for the pool to stir again. So we can all, because we have health and healing, we have access and come back into the pool and just glory in the presence of God while leaving all of those who are powerless outside, unable to get in.

It's not the will of God that people should have to crawl to the healing waters, but the water should escape the boundaries and come to the people. And this is where we live today. We live in a place, I believe, where God is calling us one more time and saying, are you willing to escape the boundaries?

The boundaries of your own image of yourself, the boundaries of fear. The scripture tells us in John that the disciples were assembled in a closed room for fear of the Jews. We live in a society that's very similar, I guess, to that day.

Obnoxious to the things of God and marginally threatening to those who are walking with God. And so we can be, and society doesn't mind us as a church as long as we are out in an upper room with the doors closed.

You just stay where you are, stay quiet and don't bother us and everything will be just fine. You don't bother us, we won't bother you. Think about Acts chapter 2 for a moment. 120 people gathered in an upper room.

They were afraid. Outside of them was a society obviously hostile to the things of God. Obviously very glad that they had somehow marginalized this testimony, pushed it out of their collective consciousness, gotten rid of this man called Jesus Christ.

And as they saw it, all of their deluded, his deluded followers, frustrated, powerless religious people, withering and blind, waiting for the day of their freedom. It had come, but they didn't recognize it.

Pentecost and the Church Breaking into Public View

When suddenly the floodgates of the temple were opened. And quite unexpectedly, the spirit-filled church burst into view. It must have been an amazing, when I get to heaven, I've got to go to the video section that shows this.

And I want to see this. You've got at least 3 ,000 people with vengeance, vehemence, bloodlust, the hatred of God as he had presented himself to them. They are weak and blind and powerless and they don't know it.

They feel they have the church of Jesus Christ marginalized. Just in the natural, it's 3 ,000 versus 120. They're in an upper room and nobody cares. Let them have their delusion as the society of their time would have called it.

When suddenly the doors open and suddenly the spiritual church that Ezekiel saw, the spiritual church that is always by the power of God been able to break out of its borders. The spirit-filled church comes into public view.

And the writer of the book of Acts tells us that they were speaking the megalios of God, the awesome works of God, the awesome power of God. They were empowered by the spirit of God. They had come to the atonement.

They were free and clean of their sin and they knew it. They had all failed God to the last of them. Their homemade religion had died and they knew they needed the mercy of God and they had found the mercy of God.

They were able to stand and condemn every voice that would rise against them in judgment because their righteousness was not their own. It was given to them of God. It was a covering not made by the hands of man or the effort of anything human.

It was provided by the mercy of God. They were covered in this mercy of God. The blood had come upon them. They understood their redemption. They were standing in the shadow of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Every last one was a failure but they knew it was not by power nor by might nor by human effort but by the spirit of God. And God's redemption had touched him and his Holy Spirit had filled them. It was not enough to dwell in the wilderness for these hundred and twenty.

They had heard the voice of God. Go into all the world as the Father has sent me now I send you. They knew the work of God was not to feel happy in the pool but was to go to the lost. They understood the work of God and they set their lives in jeopardy to fulfill this calling.

They knew for some it would mean death and for some it did. And they burst out of the upper room and just as Ezekiel saw suddenly the crowd of three thousand standing there suddenly the water is around their ankles.

The next thing they know it's up to their loins. The next thing they know they're swimming in the presence of God because there's a spiritual church has come out of the upper room. The testimony of Christ has broken the boundaries of the pool and Jesus himself in his church is standing in front of these withered people saying will you be made whole?

Will you be made free? Will you walk into this testimony of life that you see before you? Peter stood up and he said this Jesus has God raised and we are witnesses of it. In other words we are living testaments of it.

Jesus has been raised from the dead and he's alive in me and my life is a testimony of this. Wherefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost he has now shed forth this which you see in here.

In other words we are cleansed by his sacrifice and we are empowered by the Spirit of God and there was something so profound in this that the three thousand murderous religious religionists could not deny it.

Therefore Peter said let all the house of Israel know for sure that God has made this same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. You pushed him out of your borders but God has made him Lord and Christ.

You threw him out of your schools but God has made him Lord and Christ. You pretend he doesn't exist but God has made him Lord and Christ. You try to pretend he's not around but God has made him Lord and Christ.

Every knee will bow every tongue will confess. The scripture says when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and they said to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do?

What do we need to do? Then Peter said repent turn from your sin and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is to you to your children and to all that are far off even New York City as many as the Lord our God shall call.

The promise is to you. The people were suddenly immersed in the presence of God. Our hope and calling as a church today is that God again will give us the power to break out of our boundaries. In order to break out of the sanctuary and to be able to be salt and light in this city we have to break out of the personal boundaries.

Breaking Free from Self-Doubt and Personal Limitations

That means your self-image. Remember he was angry with Moses when he called Moses and Moses said but I'm not eloquent and I stutter and it's been 40 years since I lost the vision and the scripture says God was angry with this response.

He said who made your mouth? You're talking to the one who created you. You're talking to the one who took a pile of dust and breathed in it and it became a living soul and you're telling me I can't use you?

And so nobody here has the right to say God can't use me. It doesn't matter your background, your education, lack thereof, your culture, your social standing, whether you have money in the bank or you owe a million dollars.

It doesn't matter. God can use you. It doesn't matter. And some would say well pastor you don't understand I don't have the victory. I'm not walking in victory. I'm struggling. Well you have to break out of that boundary.

As I read it in the scriptures the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin and not only cleanses but gives us the power to change. Gives us the power to be a new creation. Do you have to be living in 100 absolute unconditional victory?

No. All of us will. All of us. There are times and seasons that you'll be struggling with despair or you'll be fighting an old temptation or whatever it is but the power of God cleanses from all sin and the Spirit of God gives us the power to be changed into that which God has called us to be.

We must allow God to break us out of the boundaries. We must allow the Spirit of Christ to open every prison door in our life and to give us sight to be able to see what God sees and to be able to walk the way God walks.

We must believe God for this now. The Christian church in our generation has tried every conceivable gimmick known to man to get people to come into the house of God and it's become fruitless. We gather crowds but not converts and folks let me tell you something.

Jesus stood on the shore and he saw them fishing and he said have you caught anything? They said no we've been fishing all night and we haven't caught anything. Then he said as Ezekiel did, I believe he was speaking from Ezekiel, then cast your net on the right side of the ship.

Cast your net on the side of the blood and the power of God. Go back to the atonement. Christian church throughout the world go back to the atonement. Go back to the cross. Go back to the power of the Holy Spirit.

Cast your net on the right side of the ship. We have come to the end of the gimmickry. It's not going to win this generation. One more time we have to be willing to listen to the voice of God and cast our net on that side of the ship.

Cast your net where the blood and the water came out of the body of Jesus Christ. Cast your net on the right side of the temple where the river of God began to flow to all generations. Get back to the blood.

Get back to the atonement. Get back to the power of the Holy Spirit. However you see that, whatever denomination you might be listening from today, however you see it, get back there. The time is short.

The work is great. God has given us a season where we can make a difference in our generation. I want you today to defy your inward fear and every lie of the devil that you can't because God says you can.

If you know how to give gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? Didn't Jesus say, I've come to open every prison door, to heal every wounded heart, you know, sit in a counseling group from now till Christ returns talking about your hurt, but that's not going to bring your life into line with the testimony of God.

There is a point and a time where we simply have to believe God and say, I'm not staying here anymore. I'm out of here. I'm not living in this place any longer. You have to defy the inward fear. There's a point of standing up because Jesus came to the man and said, will you be made whole?

He could have said no. He comes to his church first and says to his church, will you be made whole? Can you, will you let me touch you in the area of your weakness and your powerlessness? Will you let me become your strength?

Will you, one more time, just go into that upper room and let me be God to you. And when I am God to you, then you will come out and your whole testimony will not be about anything but Jesus Christ, the power of God and the cross of Christ.

You are going to be used of God in this end time harvest. You, you are. In all of your pain, in all of your struggling, in all of your nothingness, if you take time to read the scriptures, you will find that these are the people that God always uses.

The kingdom of God does not work the way the corporate world works. In the corporate world, you take the finest looking, the educated, the best speakers, the, those that, you know, have the best boardroom plan and they build a, they build a corporation, but that's not the way the church works.

God does just turn it completely upside down. The Lord says, I take the foolish, I take the, the nothings, I take the nobodies and I make them a hundred thousand times more than they could ever be by any strength or strategy of their natural ability, that no flesh can glory in my presence.

And the only boast they have is in the cross of Jesus Christ. But you and I have to escape the boundaries. The water has to go to those who need the healing. I want to challenge you to defy your fear.

Defy every lie, every contrary argument, everything that's ever been spoken over your life. Everything that everybody has ever said to you, defy it because the higher reality is what God has spoken to you.

That is truth. That is what you should base your life on. And I'm telling you today that God is going to use you for his glory. And Father, I thank you, Lord, for your word today. Thank you for your strength.

I thank you, Jesus, that you have a plan that is deeper and farther than anything that has come from our own understanding. You told Paul, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God.

I'm asking you, Lord, to move in healing and delivering power in this service this morning and give us the ability to escape the borders of our own fear and to go to those who need God and are looking for help and looking for hope.

Lord, I believe this in Jesus' name. Now, I'm going to give an altar call this morning. Now, listen to me carefully, please. I want to call the fearful to this altar. The 120 in the upper room were fearful people.

The disciples in the end of the book of John were fearful, and they were locked away in a room. But Jesus came to them. We don't need to pretend that we are what we are not. Thank God for that. Christ is looking for real people, weak people who just say, Lord, here am I.

Send me. That's all he's looking for. And if that's you today, if that's you, you'd like the courage to speak to people in New York City, which is not an easy thing. I talk to people on the elevator. Nobody answers me most of the time.

I don't care anymore. I don't care. Talk to them anyway. Got on the elevator a few weeks back, and there was a young lady on the elevator, and she just looked a mess. And I've only got from the first floor to whatever floor she's getting off.

And I said, young lady, may I say something to you? And she said, yes. I said, you need to get right with God. You need to get back to God. And she said, yeah, you're right. She was in church the next week.

An Altar Call to Leave Fear and Defeat

Let's stand. Please just come forward if the Holy Spirit is drawing you today. We're going to pray together and believe God for great strength. Balcony, you can go to either exit, if you will, and make your way here in the annex.

You'd stand between the screens. If you're backslidden, come back. Come back to God. Get back to God quickly. Believe Him for your victory. Don't live in defeat anymore. You don't have to. Don't sit in your seat because you're struggling with a sin.

Get out and trust God for the freedom. Let's believe God. The time's short. The work is great. But the power of God is greater than all of that. Let's worship for a few moments together. Now I want you to do something.

Those that have come to the altar and those that are still in their seats in the sanctuary, they came out of the upper room and they were speaking the wonderful works of God. And every person's heart had to be alive with faith.

And, you know, they didn't have obviously the complete victory in every life, but the promises of God had become more real than the circumstance. And every man, every woman in that room had to embrace by faith what the Word of God said He was going to do.

They knew the Word of God and they had the words of Jesus for three years given to them. And they had to know what had been promised. Some, you could see them standing and just saying, I may not have a lot here, but I have a mansion in glory.